“They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.’ And He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.’ Then the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ And the woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’ The LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life; and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.’ To the woman He said, ‘I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you will bring forth children; yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’”
As a figure of speech, notice how Adam threw Eve under the bus: “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Then notice how Eve threw the Serpent under the bus: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” However, if God controls the devil, in having decreed “whatsoever comes to pass,” including every thought, word and deed of the devil throughout all eternity, then why did the devil not form a similar defense by throwing God’s decree under the bus? For instance: “But God, You sovereignly decreed it and rendered it certain for your own glory.” Perhaps the devil knew that while he could trick certain human beings into thinking deterministically, he may also have known that he could not trick God, who knew better, having never made such a decree.
Also, notice the judgment of multiplying the pain of childbirth. If that was determined all along, then what exactly was being multiplied? In Calvinism, we live in a static universe, rather than a dynamic universe, and hence any change by God is inconsistent with Calvinism’s static decree.
[This post has been excerpted with permission from Richard Coords, Calvinism Answered Verse by Verse and Subject by Subject, © 2024.]
